The Tennessee Titans suffered an embarrassing loss to the New England Patriots in Week 12. Tennessee couldn't get anything going offensively and finished with only 13 points on the day.
Luckily for Tennessee, they still have a two-game lead in the AFC South and it doesn't look like any team is really going to catch up to them as the Indianapolis Colts have not looked good as of late. The Colts are still a good football team and they could turn it around at any time so if the Titans want to make the playoffs, they are going to need to start waking up and play better football. They're currently on a two-game losing streak now after losing in Week 11 to arguably the worst team in the NFL, the Houston Texans.
Let's take a look at a few takeaways from the Titans' disappointing week 12 loss.
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Titans Week 12 Takeaways.
3. Ryan Tannehill needs to be better
If Tennessee wants to compete for a Super Bowl then their quarterback Ryan Tannehill needs to play much better than he did on Sunday. There's no excuse for somebody with Tannehill's talent to go 11-21 with only 93 yards and an interception.
Tannehill has shown throughout the past year-and-a-half that he can be an elite quarterback in this league. He's done that for most of this season. Tannehill has 2,774 yards and 14 touchdowns which are both top 20 in the NFL. He also has the 13th highest QBR at 53.3.
With the loss of Derrick Henry, Tannehill needs to do much more than what he did on Sunday if the Titans wants a chance to compete in this league.
2. DonTrell Hilliard did everything he could
DonTrell Hilliard is obviously not Derrick Henry. Derrick Henry is arguably the best running back in the NFL. What he and D'onta Foreman did on Sunday is everything and more than what the Titans could ask for.
Foreman finished the game with 19 carries for 109 yards, while Hilliard finished with 12 carries for 131 yards.
Both of them played exceptionally well and if the Titans can continue getting anywhere near this type of production from either of them, the loss of Derrick Henry is going to hurt a little bit less. Obviously, there are ways that Derrick Henry impacts a game from him just being on the field. We have seen that the past two weeks as Ryan Tannehill has struggled in both of the Titans' losses.
1. The defense needs to wake up
There's no excuse for the defense to allow a rookie quarterback to have 310 yards and put up 36 points on the board. If they're going to want to compete and try to win an NFL Championship, their defense needs to get stops. Even if the Titans' offense played anywhere near what they were capable of, there's still a chance that they weren't going to put up more than 30 points.
Factor in how cold it was and that it was snowing in New England, and it makes it even more of a problem that this defense gave up that many points.
Tennessee has a lot to focus on in the next coming weeks as they are only two games ahead in their division. If they want to be the team that many expected them to be, they need to wake up and start playing the way that they know they can.
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